Asked by: Anna Gelderd (Labour - South East Cornwall)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what the total value of landings was from fly-seine fishing operations in English waters by (a) EU-registered and (b) English-registered fly-seine vessels for each year since 2015.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Table 2. Annual value (GBP) landed from fly-seine fishing operations in English waters by EU-registered and English-registered fly-seine vessels from 2015 to 2023.
Vessel Registration | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 |
EU | 9,400,000 | 12,200,000 | 15,500,000 | 15,400,000 | 14,700,000 | 12,800,000 | 12,700,000 | 15,900,000 | 16,900,000 |
England | 2,800,000 | 3,100,000 | 2,400,000 | 1,500,000 | 3,000,000 | 3,100,000 | 3,800,000 | 8,900,000 | 10,400,000 |
Asked by: Anna Gelderd (Labour - South East Cornwall)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether her Department has (a) direct and (b) real time access to systems that monitor EU-registered fishing vessels that are fishing in English waters.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Fishing activity in English waters is monitored by the Marine Management Organisation (MMO). MMO receives positional data and electronic logbook (elog) catch data for all foreign fishing vessels of 12 metres or more in length. Data from these vessels is received with the same frequency as for UK vessels. Live positional data is required to be transmitted at least once every two hours and electronic logbook data is required to be submitted at least once per day whilst at sea. Once transmitted, data is automatically forwarded to the UK by the relevant fisheries authority and is received by MMO in close to real-time.
Asked by: Anna Gelderd (Labour - South East Cornwall)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many investigations of EU-registered fishing vessels were commenced by her Department in each year since 2020; and how many and what proportion of those investigations resulted in (a) charges being brought and (b) successful prosecutions.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Marine Management Organisation (MMO) does not publish investigations, only prosecutions. The table below lists all cases where charges were brought resulting in successful MMO prosecutions in court of EU vessels in each year since 2020 (there were no unsuccessful prosecutions).
| EU Vessels |
2020 | 1 |
2021 | 1 |
2022 | 2 |
2023 | 2 |
2024 | 0 |
2025 to date | 1 |
Asked by: Anna Gelderd (Labour - South East Cornwall)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to resolve delays in payments under the Sustainable Farming Incentive due to designated site complications such as underlying archaeology.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Rural Payments Agency are working at pace with customers to resolve those agreements identified where herbal lays have been applied to land containing historic features which impacted their eligibility.
With over 85% of these payments now been released, we are continuing to work with the affected customers to ensure any remaining payments due are made as soon as possible.
Asked by: Anna Gelderd (Labour - South East Cornwall)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what support is in place for farmers who are unable to access SFI agreements between the scheme’s closure in March 2025 and the planned re opening in mid 2026.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
There are currently record numbers of farmers taking part in farming schemes such as the Sustainable Farming Incentive. As of April 2025, these schemes supported 885,000 hectares of arable land being farmed without insecticides; 330,000 hectares of low input grassland being managed sustainably; and 85,000 kilometres of hedgerows being protected and restored.
In the recent spending review, we committed to carrying on the transition towards paying to deliver public goods for the environment. We have allocated a record £11.8bn to sustainable farming and food production over this parliament. Defra is working closely with farmers and industry stakeholders to design a future SFI offer that will better target SFI in an orderly way towards our priorities for food, farming and nature. Further information about the reformed SFI will be provided shortly.
Asked by: Anna Gelderd (Labour - South East Cornwall)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Foot and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of compliance with conservation obligations on scheduled monuments located within agricultural land; and what steps he is taking to ensure that land management practices are compatible with heritage protection legislation.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Scheduled Monuments are protected via the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979. Since 2013, positive management of Scheduled Monuments located within agricultural land, promoted through Defra’s agri-environment schemes, has helped to remove approximately 700 from Historic England's Heritage at Risk Register. Countryside Stewardship Higher Tier has measures to support such practices, further information is available at Countryside Stewardship Higher Tier (CSHT) - GOV.UK.
Asked by: Anna Gelderd (Labour - South East Cornwall)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he plans to bring forward legislative proposals to increase protections for (a) ancient and (b) veteran trees.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
As the criminal case for the Sycamore Gap tree has shown, our judicial system takes illegal tree felling seriously: those that cause illegal damage will be held to account. In addition, our most important trees, those of ancient and veteran status, are considered irreplaceable habitats and protected in planning policy. Local authorities may also grant specific protections on individual trees of high value through Tree Preservation Orders.
Asked by: Anna Gelderd (Labour - South East Cornwall)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of introducing performance standards for material recovery facilities to ensure purity of all material bales.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Simpler Recycling requires the following recyclable waste streams from all households and workplaces in England: glass, metal, plastic, paper and card, food waste (and garden waste from households only). These measures will increase the quantity of dry recyclable material collected for sorting at MRFs and will apply from 31st March 2025 from workplaces, 31 March 2026 from households and 31st March 2027 from micro-firms (with less than 10 FTEs).
There are existing requirements on material recovery facilities (MRFs) to report the reject rates at each facility in Waste Data Flow question 100 and to undertake composition sampling on material received and report this to the Environment Agency via the Environmental Permitting Regulations 2023.
Defra is working with WRAP (Waste and Resources Action Programme) and waste industry representatives to support Material Recovery Facility (MRF) readiness for the Simpler Recycling requirements.
We have engaged with MRF operators and local authorities through WRAP’s MRF Forum to identify challenges with MRF capacity, investment, upgrade timelines, and to work with the sector to identify interventions to support MRFs as they prepare for Simpler Recycling. WRAP is developing interventions to support Local Authorities with setting up new MRF contracts, determine the potential future composition of dry mixed recyclable waste streams and the associated financial implications.
I have instructed my officials to develop further policy options to drive long-term improvement to Local Authority performance, including on potential approaches to improving quality which will support the UK reprocessing sector.
Asked by: Anna Gelderd (Labour - South East Cornwall)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what support his Department plans to provide to local authorities and material recovery facilities to ensure sorting and recycling infrastructure can be upgraded so it is consistent.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra is working with WRAP (Waste and Resources Action Programme) and waste industry representatives to support Material Recovery Facility (MRF) readiness for the Simpler Recycling requirements.
Simpler Recycling requires the following recyclable waste streams from all households and workplaces in England: glass, metal, plastic, paper and card, food waste (and garden waste from households only). These measures will increase the quantity of dry recyclable material collected for sorting at MRFs and is a requirement from 31 March 2025 from workplaces, 31 March 2026 from households and 31 March 2027 from micro-firms (with less than 10 FTEs).
We have engaged with MRF operators and local authorities through WRAP’s MRF Forum to identify challenges with MRF capacity, investment, upgrade timelines, and to work with the sector to identify interventions to support MRFs as they prepare for Simpler Recycling. WRAP is developing interventions to support Local Authorities setting up new MRF contracts or procurement of other resources associated with implementation of Simpler Recycling requirements. An assessment is being undertaken of the potential future composition of dry mixed recyclable waste streams and the associated financial implications resulting from this.
The MRF operators who are engaged with us are aware of their obligations and are working hard to upgrade their facilities to ensure they can separate the target materials as required by Simpler Recycling.
Asked by: Anna Gelderd (Labour - South East Cornwall)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will (a) advocate for improved international protections for salmon through the North Atlantic Salmon Conservation Organisation and (b) support local hatcheries to aid salmon population recovery.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner
The UK is a committed member of the North Atlantic Salmon Conservation Organisation (NASCO), which seeks to reverse the decline of wild Atlantic salmon and recover populations to healthy and resilient levels across their range. The UK hosted NASCO’s 2025 annual meeting in Cardiff, earlier this year, at which parties agreed to develop ambitious new salmon action plans to contribute to the recovery of salmon populations. In the first half of 2026 NASCO will host negotiations to develop a new regulatory measure for the West Greenland land fishery, which the UK will participate in. In 2024 NASCO published new guidelines for stocking Atlantic salmon. In England, all stocking activity is regulated by the Environment Agency, who take a case-by-case approach, with reference to the NASCO guidelines.